Tree-fiddy
by FythyrWisp
Summary: Dean teams up with a friend to track a nocturnal soul-sucker. Geekdom is exploited.
1. Chapter 1

(A/N: The character of Lita came about accidentally as a side character in another story I wrote, I Pray the Lady my Soul to Keep, mostly to make a point about a certain faith group that is welcoming to all religions, but she grew on me... and on Dean... so if you want her background, go read the other story first, but keep in mind that one is M for a reason.

Despite the fact that this story will address the issue of rape, entirely due the type of monster they're hunting, I am going to try to keep it at the same level as the actual show, and if I raise it to an M, I hope it will be for gore, because everything else I've done so far is very adult.

Thanks for reading! FW)

* * *

Lita moved through the Denver airport, watching faces carefully. Her small suitcase rolled behind her, and her low heels clicked on the tile as she went. She wore business attire, her dark, curly hair was swept back and wound into a bun, and her makeup was reserved and tasteful on her tan skin.

She seemed to hold her head up as she watched the faces that passed as she made her way to the door, but she carried in her demeanor a hint of fear, and was watching for signs the people in the crowd might not be human.

Once outside, she sent the text message she'd already written and saved on her phone.

It wasn't long before the classic black sedan pulled up the curb.

She would have known it anywhere.

She opened the back door and put her suitcase inside before quickly getting into the front.

The driver took a quick glance at her out the corner of his eye, through sunglasses.

"Walking around in public half dressed again, huh?"

Lita pulled a long green scarf out of her purse as the car pulled away. "This time it was for my own safety, not yours."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that." he said. "But, hey, don't worry, I'll keep you safe, so you just make yourself comfortable."

Lita smiled as she put her hijab on, carefully covering her hair, neck, and what little of her chest was showing.

"So what is it you're tracking?" he asked.

Lita chuckled, "You are never going to believe this one."

"Try me."

"A Lilin... daughter of Lilith and Adam, if the stories are true. A very powerful, specialized, female demon... You'd probably know the it by a different name."

He nodded. "Wait... no, wait a minute, are you serious?"

Lita laughed at his uncomfortable reaction. "Don't worry, Dean, I'll keep you safe."

"Oh, yeah, that's very funny... How did you know it was coming out this way?" Dean asked.

"A co-worker of mine hacked her credit cards, and we found her in the security tapes getting on a flight a few hours before I did. They're actually digging through footage from the cameras in this airport right now, and she paid for a suite in Colorado Springs, so we know where she'll be... Of course she paid for a package for a convention that's happening, so we also know what she'll be doing." Lita answered.

Dean looked at the big air port complex in his rear view mirror. "They can do that?"

"Yes, we're pretty good. Now if only we could get a foothold in the states..." she hinted.

Dean shook his head, "Sorry, honey. I'm not ready for that kind of commitment."

"Mitzy.. Melissa doesn't mind working with us."

"How's she doing?" Dean asked, a hint of worry and a touch of sadness in his voice.

"She's doing well." Lita said. "We go for lunch regularly, she's got her apartment just how she wants it, and she's helping people. If she can just drop the Mexican accent when she talks, she'll be fine."

"Mexican?"

"Yes, I guess growing up in Texas has made it harder for her to learn the proper pronunciations for Spain. She'll get it, though, don't worry." Lita answered. "You know, we had about six or seven hunters out taking care of a vampire nest, and something went wrong. They barricaded themselves in a storage building. It was her help that got them out. She's saving people, and like her brothers, she's good at it."

"I don't know, I'd rather she was traveling like she said she was going to do." Dean said quietly. "Something safe."

"She's safe, and so am I. She's helped us make our control building even safer, and we've received a mysterious grant from this strange Faulkner Corporation, which I'm sure has nothing to do with her." Lita said. She was quiet for a moment. "Did your angel friend tell you she's blonde now?"

Dean shook his head. "No... I'm not sure Cas cares what color her hair is."

Lita pulled up a picture on her phone. "Here..."

Dean was pulling up to a red light anyway, and took the phone. "Where was this?"

"St James' cathedral. It was lovely."

Dean looked closely at the one woman in the picture who wasn't sitting next to him. "So a Wiccan girl and a Muslim girl go to a Catholic church on their day off?"

"It was fun. Nothing tried to kill us, and if anything tried, there was holy water available."

Dean handed the phone back to her. "Well, I liked her regular color better, but I guess she's less recognizable. Looks more like her mom, though."

* * *

Dean came through the connecting door of the two hotel rooms and put the take-out bag on the table. "Got you a tofu stir-fry, hope that's okay."

Lita pushed her laptop to the side, reaching for the food. "Thanks... I found out when the convention will be selling tickets at the door, we'll need to be in line early, and there's a game shop on the way so we can get you something more appropriate to wear."

"Game shop?" Dean asked. "What kind of convention is it?"

"Science Fiction and Anime." Lita answered.

Dean shrugged and took a bite of his egg roll. "Y'know, that actually sounds like fun... Makes sense, though, if she's looking for victims."

"Stereotyping..." Lita muttered.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So," Lita said, digging through her rice for another piece of tofu, "Flash Gordon..."

"The old black and white ones." Dean answered, with a small smile and a nod. "What?... What's that look? Don't tell me you like the 80s one, that was awful."

"The music was good." Lita argued.

"If course it was good, it was Queen. But the rest of it?"

"It had that guy from Fiddler, too."

"Yeah, but he was better in Fiddler." Dean said, before quickly looking away while stuffing more food in his mouth.

Lita's jaw dropped. "You watch musicals?"

Dean shrugged, "No, c'mon! Fiddler doesn't count, it's like Sound of Music, everyone knows Fiddler."

"So you've never seen Cats?" Lita asked skeptically.

"Oh, I see cats all the time, I just don't get too close, 'cause I'm allergic." Dean answered, his sarcasm obvious. "So do we know how to take this thing out?"

Lita shook her head. "Actually, we're still trying to figure that one out."

"So, even if we find it, we can't take it out." Dean said. "Sam is going to be back in the bunker by the end of the day, we can get him to help out."

* * *

Stepping out of the bathroom, traces of water still on his skin, Dean ran the towel over his hair again, and kicked himself for not taking his bag in with him. He had left the door between the rooms cracked, giving Lita a reminder of the last time they'd been in a hotel. 'You need anything, and I mean that, anything, you so much as hear a weird noise, come find me, okay?'

Dean pulled his undershirt on over his head and straightened out the waist before going back to the connecting door and opening his side. Lita's was cracked a few inches, but she was already in bed.

He sat down on his bed with his phone, accessing his email.

Sam had thankfully avoided sending a wall of text, probably knowing Dean wouldn't read it, and instead opted for more of a bullet list format.

"Jury's out on this one, there's different lore for different types, but it's going to be more powerful than a regular demon.

Maybe the knife would work, but we're never that lucky,

Reinforced demon trap, maybe,

Here's a link to an anti-lilith charm, if this thing is related to her, who knows, might keep it away or slow it down. Also where the word lullaby comes from..."

Dean rolled his eyes. At least Sam, and his propensity to sleep with dangerous not-quite women was safely several states away. Although taking a look at the dark outside the window, he wasn't sure for his own safety.

Briefly, he considered the small couch in the next room, but decided against it.

* * *

Dean tapped softly on Lita's side of the double door, trying not to knock it open further, but sticking his head into the small gap. "Hey, you awake yet, jet-lag?"

Lita mumbled something, rolling over and throwing the covers off her face. Dean's eyes fixed for a split second on her obvious cleavage then immediately shot to the ceiling.

"I'm going to go hit that geek shop you mentioned, and grab breakfast, give you some time to get ready. Breakfast burritos okay?" Dean asked.

"Uh... depends on the tortillas."

"Tortillas are a problem?"

"Some are made with lard. Pork product."

"Okay, I'll double check, if they can't manage kosher, there's always donuts."

Lita dragged the pillow over her face.

"K, I'll be back in a bit. Phone's on." Dean said, turning to leave.

* * *

Dean decided to stop at the game store first. He looked through the windshield at the garish sign.

He was actually fond of comic and game stores. After winding up with a teacher giving his father a rather long phone call, John had started making the time to let Dean pick up anything he wanted to read until he had caught up to grade level. It was the only time he'd seen his father embarrassed. John had also encouraged Dean to read to Sam, in the hopes Sam wouldnt have the same issue.

Dean had managed quite a collection before girls became a distraction, and it was no surprise when Sam started reading early, practicing on whatever shredded cast-off copies Dean would let him have.

He was supposed to be looking at the tshirts, but couldn't help snagging a Batman comic when he noticed the Joker was the villain.

Dean grabbed the first Han Solo tshirt he found sufficiently snarky, and headed back to the front, putting his items on the counter at the register.

Briefly he considered the game pieces on the wall behind the counter, as a heavily tattooed and pierced young woman with green dreadlocks approached to ring up his purchase.

She droned, either half awake, or very disinterested. "We have a special on Steve Jackson crap. %40 off Munchkin, %25 off the other stuff."

"What's Munchkin?"

"It's a card game that doesn't suck ass. It's like the only thing I'll actually play with my so-called family. I strongly recommend it."

"Uh, okay. Yeah. Why not?"

She grabbed a brown box with an odd cartoon character off the shelf behind her, practically throwing it onto the counter.

Dean paid, attempting to give her a smile, before gathering his things and heading out.


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N: Mentions of inappropriate stuff in this chapter, not my usual stuff. Nothing graphic, nobody getting it on, totally safe. Thanks for reading! FW)

* * *

"Hey, I'm back. Tortillas have vegetable shortening, but they cook the diced potatoes in bacon grease, so I asked 'em to use a torn up hashbrowns instead. Hope that's okay." Dean called, setting down an arm load of coffee, breakfast, and a bag from the game store in his room.

"A torn up hashbrown?" Lita's voice came from the doorway.

"Yeah," Dean replied, digging into the bag. "They make them in vegetable oil, but it's crunchy, like chips, or shoestring fries."

Lita came closer, peering into the bag. Dean finally looked up. She was wearing a Starfleet uniform in teal, her curly hair pulled back, but fairly fluffed.

"'Next Gen' fan, huh, Counselor?" Dean asked, reaching into the bag and handing her a foil wrapped bundle.

"Original is better, but when the costume came, it didn't work like I thought it would." she said, sitting down.

"How's that?" Dean asked, taking one of the cups out of the cup carrier and placing it on the table next to her.

"I was just going to add leggings, and I bought it three sizes too big, but when I put it on, it... well, it was... shapely." she said, setting the burrito down to take a sip.

"Because what's the point in being covered if you can see everything anyway, right?" Dean asked.

"Exactly." Lita responded, picking up the burrito again.

"So, are you going to be running around half naked at the convention?" Dean asked nonchalantly.

Lita shot him a dirty look. "Cosplay doesn't count. And I actually feel okay with this." she said running a hand over the collar that covered her throat.

"I'm just saying, you know, Guinan was always pretty well covered." Dean said defensively.

"If you have to explain your costume, you're doing it wrong. Her character is too minor, and I look nothing like Whoopi Goldberg." she peeled back the tortilla a bit, looking at the hashbrown shreds. "This was a really good idea, crunchy pieces... What did you buy at the game store?"

Dean had his mouth full, and pulled the shirt out of the bag to show her.

* * *

Dean hadn't minded waiting in the insanely long registration line. Lita stayed quiet, watching the crowd carefully, occasionally pointing out costumes she thought were particularly good.

"Okay, favorite anime?" Dean asked, just to break the silence between them.

"Card Captor Sakura." she answered, still scanning the crowd. "My cousin got me hooked on Card Captors, then when she got the better one from Japan, we bingewatched it when she came to stay with my family for a few weeks one summer."

"That must have been fun. Are you two close?"

"We were really close. She passed away the next year. Car accident."

"Sorry." Dean said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

Lita frowned slightly. "She's in a better place, I'm sure."

"Yeah, well, still hurts to miss somebody."

A short time later, Dean and Lita made their way to the dealer's room. Rows of tables lined the walls and created wide labyrinthine aisles inside the cavernous hall. Clumps of people, whether in street clothes, costumes both epic and shitty, or basic fan merchandise, stood talking and browsing. The overall mood of the giant room was happy and content.

Dean jumped as a dark skinned teenaged boy suddenly bumped into him, reaching past his arm to tap Lita's shoulder, about three feet in front of him. The kid was also in a Starfleet uniform, and after stifling the instinct to throw him backwards, he started trying to place the character.

"Sorry, man, sorry!" the youth said to Dean, turning back to Lita abruptly. "Hey, great costume! A bunch of us are trying to get a bridge crew together for a picture, wanna help us out?"

"Geordi LaForge, right?" Dean asked.

"Yeah!" he said, nodding with a big grin.

"Except he wasn't bridge crew, he was in engineering."

"You're good!" he laughed, "Where's your costume?"

"Left it in my mom's basement."

The kid laughed harder. "So, how about it? We'd love to get you in the picture."

"Sure," Lita said, turning to follow him.

Dean set down the Firefly figurine he had been looking at, and started to follow.

A rather bouncy woman who appeared to be in her late twenties wearing a convention staff tshirt stepped in front of him, way too close for personal comfort, carrying a stack of flyers in one hand and a single one in the other. "Yaoi film fest tonight on the second floor!"

Dean leaned back as she shoved the flyer towards his face. He mentally equated her to an obnoxious yapping poodle. "No. Thanks. I'm good."

"Oh, that's cute." she said, grinning far too widely and cocking her head in amusement. Dean looked past her, and spotted Lita posing with the group of cosplayers. Several people were taking photos, but they all seemed harmless. "What about your lady friend? She might like to go."

"Yeah, no, I think I know her well enough to guess." Dean muttered, and stepped around her, his irritation barely contained.

Dean pulled out his phone and joined the several amateur photographers, figuring Lita would want a picture. Lita hurried up to him quickly, shying away from a Riker cosplayer with a far too angular face who was trying a little too hard to keep her attention. Dean wasn't too surprised when Lita grabbed his elbow a bit too fast, waved at the rest of the group, and began to hustle him away.

"You okay?" Dean asked, looking back at the man.

"Yeah, no, he's human, just creepy. But that girl with the flyers, she wasn't. What did she say?"

"Oh. She, um... she was passing out flyers for some anime screening tonight."

"Then we should go, try to keep an eye on her."

"Uh, bad idea. And not exactly going to line up with the case, can't be many guys attending for this one."

"What is it, some romance story?"

"Uh, sure. Yeah." Dean spotted the overly chipper non-human. "Oh, crap, she's coming back."

Flourishing a flyer to Lita, and once again, standing much too close, she bounced into place in front of them. "Yaoi film fest tonight on the second floor! Doors open at midnight, I.D. required!"

Lita gingerly took the flyer. Dean tried to read her face, but other than general discomfort, he wasn't sure about Lita's reaction. He smiled politely before moving his arm up to Lita's shoulders and steering her away.

"What is yaoi?" Lita asked.

Dean grimaced. "Gay."

Lita looked taken aback.

"No, I don't mean that like derogatory, I mean, literally. It's... it's basically gay porn, but anime." Dean said quietly.

Lita looked at the flyer. "She's not human, Dean. And four people have died. I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable with this, but if it bothers you, I can go by myself."

"With your phaser set to stun, no doubt... No, I'm with you. But you'll owe me for this one."

* * *

"How long have we been in this line?" Dean asked.

"I guess half an hour."

Another person in a convention staff tshirt had gone down the long line announcing several times that the show had been delayed, the room was almost ready, and they were testing the equipment now. It had been at least ten minutes since then.

Yet another staffer was walking past, when Dean stopped him. "Hey, do you get a discount for working the con?"

"Yeah, working knocks the price down a bunch, but the head honchos who work the entire time probably don't have to pay, since they put the whole thing together." Dean nodded, and the guy kept walking. Lita shot a confused look at the guy as he walked away.

Dean leaned a bit closer to Lita. "How much did the convention package cost our mystery lady?"

Lita pulled her phone out of a pocket and flipped through her email, just as the line started to move.

She was still pulling up the credit card records as they got to the door. Dean tried not to flinch as flyer-girl yapped at them, startling Lita when she looked up.

"Cellphones off in the theater! Also, we do not discourage inappropriate behavior, we just ask you take it back to your hotel room, and not do it here." She turned to Dean. "You! Aren't you a sweetheart, going to keep her company. You aren't fooling anyone, you know."

"I'm not?"

"No. If you get any more uncomfortable, you're going to squirm right out of your perfect freckly skin!"

Dean raised his eyebrows and kept walking, following Lita. She went to the first row that was completely empty, and made her way to the end by the wall, where a path back to the door was readily available. She took a seat in the last chair, and Dean sat down next to her.

After a moment, Lita turned to Dean. "You just got hit on by a demon..."

Dean nodded, avoiding her eyes. "Yep. Not for the first time, either."

Lita watched as the seats began to fill faster. Yappy McDemon stayed at the door, checking convention badges and I.D.s as con-goers entered.

After there was enough of a crowd to make them less noticeable, Lita slipped her phone out again. "I have an idea."

Dean turned to look, but she caught his elbow that was to her, and moved his arm forward, sticking the phone under the waist of his shirt. He jumped slightly, not expecting to feel the top of the hard plastic brush his side.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

"Shhh. The fabric is thin enough I can just see to turn the light down on the screen." Lita hissed back.

Dean squirmed as the phone dragged against tender skin on the way out of his waistband.

"Ticklish?" Lita whispered, trying not to laugh.

"Not the time, Lita."

Dean scanned the crowd as the anime began to play. Almost entirely women, as he'd noticed when they were in line.

Lita did what she could to keep her phone covered as she searched the hacked credit card statements.

Several minutes into the film, Dean was sure it wouldn't be long before the animated characters would be up to plenty he'd rather not see. Lita's presence next to him was making it about ten times worse.

Lita tucked a leg under her to gain some height, and whispered in his ear. "The statement shows the amount for a gold package, with tax, no staff discount. The girl at the door isn't human, but can't be the one we're looking for, or she wouldn't be working the convention."

"So we can go?"

Lita nodded, tucking her phone into her pocket, and standing up to walk along the wall to the back. Dean followed close behind her as noises started to indicate a line had been crossed on the screen.

Lita turned the corner at the last row of chairs, carefully following the wall to the door, but curiosity got the better of Dean, who took one sideways glance at the screen, and immediately regretted it.

Going through the door at the back of the room and out into the now deserted hallway, the demon looked up from her post outside the door. "Already? Damn!"

Lita looked uncomfortable at the obvious implication as the not-actual-woman started to laugh.

"She's not feeling well." Dean said, reaching into his jacket. "It was a long drive, really threw off her schedule. Of course it also helps if you carry stuff like this."

Dean withdrew his hand, splashing holy water from a small flask onto the demon, causing steam to rise from her skin, accompanied by a distinct sizzling sound. She started to shriek, but he clamped a hand over her mouth, yanking her to her feet.


End file.
